The present invention relates, in general, to a chassis arrangement with a stabilizing system for controlling a stability of a motor vehicle during travel.
Nothing in the following discussion of the state of the art is to be construed as an admission of prior art.
Motor vehicles have stabilizers for compensating a rolling tendency of the vehicle as a consequence of a transversal acceleration when negotiating a curve. A stabilizer is operatively connected to a vehicle axle to introduce a support torque in opposition to the rolling torque in wheel carrier units. Normally both axles are equipped with a stabilizer.
Stabilizers typically include a single piece construction of a U-shaped metal rod with a torsionally yielding center part and stabilizer arms that connect to the center part. The center part extends transversely to the longitudinal vehicle axis and is supported in relation to the vehicle body or a chassis underframe, i.e. an auxiliary frame of the chassis arrangement, by two stabilizer bearings. The stabilizer mounts are disposed at the free ends of the stabilizer arms for securement of the stabilizer to the adjacent wheel carrier units. The stabilizer can be equipped with actuators in order to actively affect the chassis behavior. For example, hydraulic piston and cylinder units are installed between the stabilizer mounts and the wheel carrier units. By operating the piston and cylinder units, the action by the stabilizer can be boosted or decreased. In addition, the level can be adjusted by bilateral operation and operation in same direction of the actuators.
Another approach to configure a stabilizer involves a separation in midsection of the stabilizer into stabilizer portions and the disposition of an electric motor as coupling or brake unit between the stabilizing portions. In this way, each stabilizer portion can be rotated individually or in opposition to the other stabilizer portion so long as the electric motor has been appropriately supported.
However, for a number of reasons, the various proposals are endowed with drawbacks and shortcomings relating for example to their very complex configuration or to the effect that is hoped to be obtained but may not always be realized. In addition, they are very energy-intensive to implement the control performance. Also, hydraulic actuators and electric motors operate very sluggishly and thus are not entirely suitable to influence vehicle body vibration in dependence on the vibration cycle.
It would therefore be desirable and advantageous to provide an improved chassis arrangement which obviates prior art shortcomings and which is simple in structure and yet reliable in operation to enable a targeted change in the rolling rate and/or vehicle body vibration.